The Dark SIde
by mabelreid
Summary: One Shot tag to "Target and Hunt" Something's been on Castle's mind and Beckett wonders what's bothering him. Everyone has a dark side, even Richard Castle. CASKETT


**_Disclaimer: see my profile_**

**_A/n a short one shot I wrote as a sort of Tag to "Hunt." _**

**_The Dark Side_**

It was strange, seeing Castle so still. He usually had such energy and joy of life. It was one of the reasons she'd fallen for him. He always managed to make her smile even in her darkest hours.

She smiled again, as she leaned over him and smoothed back his bangs from his forehead. He snorted and jerked in his sleep, but his eyes stayed tightly closed. She debated waking him, but his face was so composed in sleep, she didn't have the heart. She decided to get a glass of wine instead.

He still slept on her couch when she returned with two glasses. She left one on the coffee table and curled up on her favorite chair. She sipped her favorite chardonnay and watched him.

After a while, his eyes fluttered, he turned toward her and stretched. "I can't sleep if you're going to stare at me."

He sat up, stretched again and patted the seat. "Come over here."

She ignored the space next to him and climbed into his lap instead. She handed him his wine and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Alright… What's bothering you, Kate?"

She wished that his eyes couldn't read her so well. "I was wondering the same thing about you. You've been a little subdued. I know that what happened to Alexis, is still weighing on you."

"Alexis is safe," he said. "I'm a little freaked out, but I got to meet my dad and while that was weird, I sort of feel that it was a good thing. Then I remember that Alexis was kidnapped and I freak out a little. It is weird that my dad actually is an international spy, but -"

"No," she interrupted. "I was thinking about the farmhouse and Stevens."

"Oh," he pulled back from her, but she leaned in and hugged him tight.

"I'm sorry you had to do that."

He didn't speak for a long time. She sat there with her head on his shoulder and felt the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. She closed her eyes and took in the spicy sent of his aftershave and feel of his shirt on her cheek.

"It was strange," he finally said. "I mean, I'm the writer and you're the cop."

She grinned, but didn't respond.

"I forget that, a lot," he continued.

"Really?"

"I remember thinking when I stepped into that room with him, that all I was going to do was tell him that Alexis was my daughter. I thought he'd cave, that he'd think - I had better be straight because this guy might hurt me.

"When I realized that he wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know, it was like this veil just dropped over my eyes and over my heart. All I could see was Alexis, her smile, her hair, her eyes, everything I love about her and I just went cold."

Kate realized that he was trembling a little. She began to run her fingers lightly up and down his forearm as he talked.

"I thought I'd feel guilty for hurting him."

"You don't," Beckett said quietly.

"No, and that's what's been bothering me. I've written stories where characters do terrible things. I even made my so-called virtuous characters, do things that I thought I'd never do. It was okay because they aren't real and I am."

"Rick," she said into the silence. "You did what you had to do."

"I know, but I also knew that you'd stand out there no matter what I did and you wouldn't interfere. I made you a party to my darkness, Kate."

She pulled back from him and made him look at her by forcing his head around with her hands. "If you think I don't have a dark side, you're wrong."

"Kate, I know we all have a dark side, but -"

"No! You're the one that saved Alexis, Castle. How you got there doesn't matter."

He pulled her forward and kissed her breathless. "I love you, Detective Beckett."

"You better," she admonished.

"Thanks for listening."

"I promise I'll always listen."

He leaned back and cuddled her up to his chest. She sighed and locked her arms around his neck.

Everyone has a dark side, she decided. No one could claim to be totally white in this world full of increasing shades of grey. The point, she decided as Rick stroked her back with his free hand, was to acknowledge the shadows within.

"So, "she said after a minute. "It's only nine and tomorrow's Sunday. What do you say we play a little game," she wiggled her eyebrows at him and he laughed.

"If you finally agree to be slutty nurse," he said.

She climbed off his lap and picked up her glass of wine, "Only in your dreams, Castle."

_**THE END**_


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